Lola at the Coffee House

Haven't watched since 2005, and hardly at all for about eight years before that, keeping a tv for when my niece came to visit (mostly so she could watch movie videos). If I'm going to watch, I want a good tv and some excellent channels to choose from - and I can't afford all that.

On the other hand, we had a tv at our house early - in the late forties, and my dad was head of tv advertising (for a while) at a big agency; I toyed with the idea of becoming a film editor, was a major (I thought) movie buff. I lived in a tv making area - a friend's father was the My Three Sons writer, other friends knew other major writers over the years. I read Variety and Reporter as a teen. And so on. I read a memoir or two by movie writers like William Goldman, followed Kael in the NYer and other critics of movies and tv.

However, I don't miss ordinary tv at all. Too many books to read, too little time. I still read at least some movie/tv reviews.

bumpiddy bump

bump again

I respect the hell out of those custom combiners. We ont hve enough croplqnd to get in on using em but my neighbors (the non AMISH) pool a group of combiners and they come in with these bigass corn heads on these Massey Ferguson combines all washed and shiny.

You guys would probably enjoy Making Hay by Verlyn Klinkenborg, if you could find copy. Amazon's prices for it are outrageous, but you might find a copy at your public library or thru the Inter-Library Loan system. Good book, excellent writer.

http://www.amazon.com/Making-Hay-Verlyn-Klinkenborg/dp/1585747262/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371783692&sr=1-1&keywords=making+hay+verlyn+klinkenborg

Except for the news, Wimbledon, and occasional sports programmes, I've given up on television. We buy boxed sets of dvds nowadays - like The Sopranos, Tenko, Poldark, the Good Life, and so on.

Ive read Klinkenborg's stuff for years in the Times. Its pretty good but once in a while he shows that hes really a "checklist" transplant to rural life.

Thanks izzy but it was the one with Joanna Lumley where she won't let him play the trombone until the end when she says "oh--go on then" rather condescendingly.

I noticed that yesterday marked 9 years since I joined A2K. I really think I preferred the A2K I joined than the one that's evolved since. It was a much friendlier, nicer place, more of a community. There was no insulting or sniping or nastiness, that I can recall.

I also liked the old format/lay-out of the site much better than this one. There was a main page, with all the forums listed, and you could see the topic threads listed under each forum heading, and when the last post to each topic thread was made. It was much better organized, and much easier to navigate.

You've been around here about the same length of time I have, spendi. Do you remember how confused we all were when the new format was introduced? I think I became so frustrated, trying to find anything, I disappeared from the site for quite a while.

Now I often miss threads, which might be of interest to me, because I'm not even aware they exist, unless I stumble on them by accident, or do a search of some kind. Just checking the "new topics" or "new posts" doesn't always help, threads just seem to get buried or lost to me because of the flimsy/hap-hazard organization. The site really isn't very user-friendly in that regard.

I just wondered if you, or some of the other old-timers, had any thoughts about this.

Did you find the old A2K a friendlier place than the one we have now? Do you like the organization/lay-out that exists now?

Is it just me? Am I just a nostalgic old fool?

{I'm not talking about Abuzz--I have no knowledge of Abuzz--only A2K)

One year (1971, I think), a farmer that owned a farm in Gildford, Montana sold out to a group of Hutterites. Fortunately, they honored the contract and let us cut the crop. I got to know these guys fairly well and guess what - not much difference between us and them. Many of the same longings and desires, and just down right good people!

I left in the past for years because of the animosity between fellow members. It would bring out the worst in me and for this, I was extremely unhappy. As far as the new layout and application, I couldn't agree more. this fact and the user conflicts just got me to quit A2K for a number of years. I went to other blog-a-spheres - which really weren't much better, they were just new.......

I like the new a2k and usually don't have trouble finding things by tags or the google search at the top. The animosity varies; what may do me in some day is the repetitive arguments that kill threads, the drawing out of fools (by some of our views, but who is thought a fool does vary) followed by thirty more back and forth pages. I'd rather read more variety.

I have learn to use "ignore" very fast. I just don't suffer fools in my older age!

Im easily suckered into an altercation because someone will post something downright insulting or pose a degree of incredulity that ascribes my lack of religion. Ive often put them on ignore for lengths of time but my rule is to have but one peron on ignore and far and away JTT is that person (nuff said).
I used to have spendi on ignore but so many people were quoting him it didn't work so Id rather be around to counter hi stuff (when it orth countering)

But I find that the number of really interesting people has dwindled markedly from the old days. We had many more people interested in science then than now. SO the few who comment and make threads "live" is limited today.

The international participation is, Im sure , of interest to those folks from those countries. I will peek into a thread about "The best tiger parks in India" but have no interest in scams and spams (lots more of them these days)
The religion threads are mildly interesting until they get to be testosterofests between people who argue the meaning of "is" .

I like the movie threds that tsar hosts and the longtime funny ones "Geek Humor, Funny SIgns etc.

It is what it is, so I figger I either bitch an roll or go somewhere else. Ive tried some of the other (including a professional geologist pge where EVERY BODY has a different take on a specific technical word and there arehundreds of arenas in geology that I simply am oblivious to(like seismic reflection of sea water currents, or lunar and martian source tektites)
Id rather a good gardening talk.
I tried a woodworking site and found it so technically centered for professional cabinetmakers that I coud only sit and read with mouth agape. (while we hd a really good guy here {STUGOT}, but he got chased away by some petty bullshit from some of our members).
BUT I cant be too critical because Id also been a member of a troika of Ros, Set and myself who'd kneecapped acoupla Creationists and dint let em speak to their heart s content before we eviscerated em with real evidence.

That's about it , Im going back out to my outcrop here in the Blue Ridge.

were you able to quickly reset all the different heads and do repairs on your combines in the field or did that hve to be done in some central place?
Around here, they will only (max) "gang reap" a crop field with three combines (I guess you guys use 10 or more at a time. But they usually haul these combines off the interstate by flatbed and hook up the corn heads or grin heads and tke off and drive through our street of Strsburg (and block up car traffic for an hour (buggies love it cause they can dawdle their hearts out while a combine parade is going up 741 with 30 turit vans behind all looking to pass)

We usually worked in groups of two to 4 combines until we got to the last field in that area. It was quite a sight to see 12 to 16 combines in one field. But, it could get very cluttered what with all the trucks that this would include. Then, we would pull the headers, load them on a bob tail and head out to the next state.

All repairs and adjustments we did in the field and if you had to change headers, that would only take a couple of hours at most. But, wheat and corn are two different seasons, spring/summer and fall. I never cut corn, we would cut maize/milo in the fall.

I once read in an old magazine article that custom harvesters (wheaties) were the last of America's cowboys.

I also don't like the fact that the animosity, that often permeates this place, also tends to bring out the worst in me. I really don't need that, and I don't like it when that happens.

The other feature of the new lay-out I don't like is that you can now reply to any previous post in a thread, and that alone will disrupt coherent discussion of almost any topic. And by replying to particular posts, and particular posters, it personalizes the discussion in a way that's not always good--and I think that's why so much animosity and personal sniping has been going on since the format changed and that feature was introduced.

If you can only post in sequence in a thread, as a "reply to all", that sort of disorganization, and personalization of any conflicts, is less likely to happen. You can still refer to things that were said earlier in the thread, but the entire thread won't derail all over the place because posters are each responding to different previous posts. Topic threads are now so often internally scattered you can't discuss anything in depth. And, if you can't have coherent meaningful discussions, a lot of interesting people will depart, and I think that's what's happened. I'm now bumping into the same handful of people in thread after thread, as though there really aren't many folks hanging around here. That alone can make the place less interesting.

It did seem friendlier at one time; then again, maybe I was just much meaner than I am now. It'll be 8 years on Bastille Day.

As to the format I have no recollection of it...part of the brain fry in 2009 which left bits missing or maybe just clouded over.
Was the setup that different? I vaguely remember something different but no idea what. Anywho, it seems easy enough to navigate these days; but, maybe it's just from the approach of a rewired brain.

(odd that I can recall the general nature of the place but not the format, this is going to eat at me for a while so I'm going to head off and devour some cheese. Cheese and/or chocolate cure everything.)